The University of Akron women’s basketball team will play the Kansas State Wildcats in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament in Manhattan, Kan. Thursday at Bramlage Coliseum. Game time will be announced later Tuesday.

It will be the first meeting ever between the Zips (22-8) and Wildcasts (18-13).

The University of Akron women’s basketball team is among six Mid-American Conference program to receive an invite to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament it was announced Monday night.

They will not know who their opponent is until later into the night.

A red-hot Eastern Michigan team ousted the Zips in the third round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament last Thursday. The team recorded a 22-8 record for the season. UA is one of 35 teams that won at least 20 games over the season in the field of 64.

It is their second appearance in the WNIT, the last coming in 2013. Other MAC participants include Ball State, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Toledo and Western Michigan. Also, the Horizon League’s Cleveland State University made the cut.

This is just my observation, but Terry Bowden saying that the quarterback competition is wide open this spring is the equivalent of telling former Kent Roosevelt standout Tra’Von Chapman that it’s his to win.

Chapman, a former Pitt recruit before a skirmish with the law and eventual Ashland quarterback, showed all the talent in the world at Roosevelt. He could make the throws. He’s got legs and he had plenty of football I.Q. Maturity or lack thereof may have been his biggest enemy.

“I think without a doubt with Tra’Von Chapman having been ineligible last year and him being eligible,” Bowden said. “I believe the position deserves to be wide open.”

Practical reasons exist as to why Chapman will get his start. A lot has to do with the inconsistent play from starter Kyle Pohl and his backup Thomas Woodson. Both passers failed to complete anywhere near 60 percent of their passes in Bowden’s offense. In fairness to Pohl, however, he missed a couple of games after taking a hit to the head and didn’t seem as effective for several games after.

University of Akron men’s basketball coach Keith Dambrot announced Saturday that his team will not accept any post-season play.

The Zips lost to eventual Mid-American Tournament champion Buffalo Friday night, and Dambrot said then that his team would likely pass on post-season play.

“After evaluating our current position, I feel it is in the best interest of our players and our program not to play in the postseason this year,” Dambrot said. “We have several players nursing injuries and have missed a lot of class time over the past few weeks. We would like to thank the postseason tournament committees for their interest in having us continue our season.”

Dambrot said Friday that other post-season tournaments didn’t have the same allure.

The word of the day is “fatigue.” That’s what that 68-59 loss was all about. It touched upon every negative stat in that game.

Let’s talk about it:

Coach Keith Dambrot admitted to it with some of his first words: “In the end the fatigue got the best of us,” he said. They opened with plenty of energy in the game’s early moments, took their best shot and gradually ran out of gas. Dambrot likes to refer to his team as a car in interviews. It finally sputtered, spit and stalled at the latest moment possible.

On the offensive glass the Zips got owned 17-5 which led to 20 second chance points for the Bulls. “They had more energy than we had. You could see it in the offensive boards and the way we shot the ball,” he said.

Here's what Akron coach Keith Dambrot and junior wing Jake Kretzer said after a 68-59 loss to Buffalo in the semifinals of the Mid-American Conference Tournament Friday night at Quicken Loans Arena:

KEITH DAMBROT

Opening statement:

We played with good heart, we just didn't play good enough to win, that's really what it came down to. We played good enough defensively, but we didn't rebound the ball well enough, we didn't do enough offensively really to win. It's unfortunate, we were right there to win, we just didn't make enough plays.